THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXLVI. God’s Solution To Inadequate Leaders

(Psalm 146:1-10)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Many leaders in many of our institutions are inadequate in their roles:

(1) Inadequate leaders vex our economy: Veronique de Rugy (“Industrial policy isn’t being done poorly. It’s just bad economics,” Republican-American, November 21, 2025, p. A6) wrote, “American industry has been getting a lot of hands-on direction from Democrats and Republicans for quite some time now . . . (but) (t)he visible hand of the government is clumsy, self-interested and easily bought . . . I’ll take the invisible hand of the market any day.”

(2) Inadequate leaders vex our politics: President Trump recently called six Democratic lawmakers “‘traitors’” who should “be imprisoned and punished ‘by death’ because they urged members of the military to not follow unlawful orders.” (Bill Cummings, “Murphy calls on Americans to pick sides over Trump call to hang ‘traitors,’” op. cit., November 22, 2025, p. A4) “Trump chose to ignore the ‘illegal’ part and” view the lawmakers as “advocating disobeying his orders as commander in chief generally . . . The congressmembers” were likely purposely “triggering Trump” as “their objective.” (Chris Powell, “Poet explains to Murphy why some don’t join him,” op. cit., November 28, 2025, p. A6) However, “(c)iting Trump’s denunciation,” Connecticut Sen. Chris “Murphy” then “said, ‘If you’re a person of influence in this country and you haven’t picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a [expletive] side.’ . . . Murphy is sore to the point of vulgarity that so many people still have not picked his side, though, on top of the nonsense of last year’s campaign, his side now is also advocating nullification and insurrection.” (Ibid.)

(3) Inadequate leaders trouble evangelicalism: (a) Trinity Evangelical Divinity School has faced such a large drop in enrollment that it has moved to Canada, so “Baptist seminaries in the South (now) dominate theological education” in American evangelicalism (Bob Smietana, “Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Moving to Canada,” April 9, 2025; christianitytoday.com). As a result, (b) “New Calvinism” has surged in American evangelical schools because the prominent Southern Baptist Theological Seminary under President Albert Mohler promotes it. (Mark Wingfield, “30 years ago, we warned Southern Baptists about rising Calvinism,” October 15, 2024; baptistnews.com) However, (c) “New Calvinism . . . produces a dangerous lack of assurance of salvation for the believer, at times approaching the same level of insecurity as is found in Arminian theology.” (George Dunn, “New Calvinism: A Theological Evaluation,” December 2020; gracelife.org) (d) It also leads to “conclusions that are contrary to a literal, grammatico-historical interpretation of Scripture.” (Ibid.) (e) We have also found in our studies that Calvinism, based on Augustine’s teachings, is heavily laced with pagan Neo-Platonism that borders on idolatrous pantheism. (f) In addition, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s President Al Mohler participates in the Gospel Coalition that spreads “Neo-Marxism” to “countless pastors and once biblically sound evangelical organizations” (Brannon S. Howse, Marxianity, 2018, p. 251). (g) The Gospel Coalition itself in turn is funded by globalist and World War II Nazi collaborator George Soros through his grant-funded shell charities (Marsha West, “ERLC, CRU, Gospel Coalition, NAR Among Soros-Funded Organizations,” October 16, 2019; christianresearchnetwork.org; April 15, 1993 interview of George Soros on PBS television show Adam Smith’s Money World, cited by Richard Poe, “Soros and the Nazis: The Whole Truth, In His Own Words,” August 2, 2006; richardpoe.com) (h) Furthermore, our Church board not long ago was asked if it would allow teaching materials by CRU, the former Campus Crusade for Christ ministry, for a ministry of our church, and CRU is one evangelical group that is funded by George Soros’ grant-funded shell charities! (West, op. cit.) [Neither our deacon board members nor I knew of this funding issue at the time, but we refused the CRU materials based on other Biblical reasons!]

Need: So we ask, “If many institutions contain inadequate leaders, how does God want us to respond?”

I. Psalm 146:3-4 calls people not to rely on the nobility in society because they are unable to deliver them:

A. The psalmist urged that we not “rely” (batah. B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 105) on “nobles” (nadib, op. cit., p. 622) who are but “mortal” (NIV) men (‘adam, op. cit., p. 9) who cannot deliver us, v. 3.

B. To explain this futility in the nobility, the psalmist noted that when their spirits depart in death and they return to the ground, that day their “plans” (‘eshettonah, op. cit., p. 799; ESV) “perish” (‘abad, op. cit., p. 1-2), v. 4.

II. The psalmist instead called on his hearers to rely on the God of Jacob, Creator of the universe, v. 5-6a.

III. Indeed, the psalmist claimed he would praise the Lord all of his earthly life (Psalm 146:1-2), for God was mankind’s Comprehensive Deliverer, Psalm 146:6b-10:

A. God is forever faithful, He judges the cause of the oppressed and He gives food to the hungry, v. 6b,7a,b.

B. He sets the prisoners free from their bondage and gives sight to the blind, Psalm 146:7c, 8a.

C. He raises up those who are “bowed down in distress, humiliation” (kaphaph, op. cit., p. 496), Psalm 146:8b.

D. The Lord loves those who are righteous, Psalm 146:8c.

E. God watches over the vulnerable in society – the aliens, widows and fatherless – but the way of the wicked He literally “makes crooked” (‘avat, op. cit., p. 736), brings them to ruin, Psa. 146:9a ESV with Exodus 22:21-24.

Lesson: Instead of relying on inadequate nobles who cannot deliver us as they are fleeting and their plans perish with their passing, we should rely on the eternal Creator of the universe Who is good and meets all our needs.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we cease relying on imperfect, transitory human leaders to deliver us and instead rely fully on the Creator God of Scripture Who is good and meets all of our needs.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

Relying on the God of Scripture leads us to use His Word to address the issues of concern in our introduction:

(1) Regarding the way inadequate leaders afflict the economy, (a) when God chose to bless Isaac by giving him an hundredfold crop production and greatly increasing his livestock numbers (Genesis 26:12-14a), the Philistines who then ruled the land envied him (Genesis 26:14b) and filled in the wells that Isaac’s father Abraham had dug for his livestock, and they told Isaac to move away from them (Genesis 26:15-16). Isaac moved elsewhere and dug more wells only to see the rulers of the land there seize them until he had moved far enough away and dug a well that no one tried to seize (Genesis 26:17-23). God then told Isaac that He would keep blessing him, that Isaac was not to fear such opposition to his welfare by Gentile rulers (Genesis 26:24-25). (b) Thus, if we rely on the Lord, regardless what economic challenges we face due to the counterproductive acts of rulers over us, God will meet our material needs!

(2) On the way inadequate lawmakers vex our politics by urging military personnel to disobey legal orders by the President, 2 Kings 6:8-23 tells how God equipped His prophet Elisha to thwart covert efforts by the Aramean army to attack Israel and then to attack himself. God is the God “of hosts,” literally in the Hebrew text, the God of “armies,” so we need merely to trust the Lord to function sovereignly over rulers over us as Romans 13:1 reveals.

(3) On the way inadequate leaders trouble evangelicalism (a) by influentially promoting “New Calvinism” that leads to a “dangerous” lack of assurance of salvation, (i) Calvinism’s view that God in eternity past chose who would trust in Christ, and that they would persevere in their Christian walk by God’s predestination leads to a lack of assurance of salvation if a believer lives in spiritual defeat. This lack of assurance can lead one to think he might not be saved, or even that he is hopelessly doomed since God may not have elected him! (ii) However, Ephesians 1:13-14 teaches the Holy Spirit seals the believer when he trusts in Christ so that he will end up in heaven at death or the rapture regardless how he lives the Christian life. At the future Judgment Seat of Christ, all of a sinfully defeated believer’s bad works will be burned up, but he himself will still be saved “so as by fire,” 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 KJV. A believer is thus unconditionally eternally secure in his salvation status by the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit! (b) We have also taught in our lessons on “Making Sense of God’s Election” that is posted on the home page of our Church website that both Arminians and Calvinists greatly err in claiming that in eternity past God chose who would be justified! Rather, God chose those He foreknew from eternity past would one day believe of their own free will and be justified by God, and He chose them unto blessings that come after their justification occurs! (c) On how “New Calvinism” leads to interpreting Scripture contrary to the literal, grammatico-historical method, Jesus in Mark 12:18-27 used the literal, grammatico-historical method to interpret Scripture, using it to interpret prophecy in Matthew 5:18 contrary to Calvinism’s amillennialism. We thus handle Scripture like Jesus did. (d) As for Al Mohler’s involvement in the Gospel Coalition that spreads cultural Marxism in evangelicalism, Exodus 20:17 and 15 respectively prohibit covetousness and stealing, two basic tenants of Marxism. We must hold to the right to private property ownership as is taught by these two commands of the Ten Commandments! (e) On the funding of the Gospel Coalition by globalist and World War II Nazi collaborator George Soros’ grant-funded shell charities, a coalition of which Al Mohler participates, 3 John 5-8 teaches that our ministries must not receive financial support from unbelievers, but only from believers. (f) On the issue of CRU being funded by Soros, our Board and I find that even if we are uninformed about deceptive moves by godless parties to corrupt evangelical beliefs, staying close to Scripture by applying 2 Timothy 3:13-17 always protects us as a Church from deceivers and deception!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we cease relying on inadequate leaders to help us and instead rely on our All-Sufficient Lord.